President Donald Trump’s proposed budget calls for sharp increases in military spending, and deep cuts in environmental and health protections and scientific and medical research. The budget follows a proposed health plan that would leave 24 million more people uninsured and shift massive amounts of wealth from the poor to the rich.

The proposed budget would cut the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) budget by 31 percent. “You can’t drain the swamp and leave all the people in it. So I guess the first place that comes to mind will be the Environmental Protection Agency,” said Mick Mulvaney, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Programs on the chopping block at EPA include those addressing climate change, energy efficiency, the cleaning up of toxic waste sites, reducing air pollution and enforcing environmental laws. The Chesapeake Bay cleanup project, which receives $73 million a year, would be cut to zero. EPA’s research and development budget would be cut in half.

Climate change programs in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and in NASA would also face cuts. The budget would eliminate weatherization assistance programs, and loan programs for energy research and technology assistance at the Department of Energy (DOE).

The budget of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) would be cut by 19 percent.

Military spending would increase by $54 billion.

“It is not a soft-power budget,” Mulvaney told reporters. “This is a hard-power budget, and that was done intentionally. The president very clearly wants to send a message to our allies and to our potential adversaries that this is a strong-power administration.”

This budget is one example of how our country is heading in the wrong direction.

If you would like to join us at one or both of these marches, please RSVP to twhitehouse@psr.org. Our collective voice can make a difference. By speaking together, loud and clear, we will send a strong statement to leaders of this country that this is not acceptable.